The Embassy of Spain in Venezuela celebrated International Book Day this Friday in Caracas, thus anticipating the official date, which is April 23, with the aim that schools can participate, during the school day, in a cultural activity that seeks to promote the habit of reading among youth.
The head of the diplomatic mission of Spain in Venezuela, Ramón Santos, highlighted the need for children and adolescents to become aware of the importance of reading books, a gesture that, he assured, is not very common.
“We are bringing forward the celebration of (International) Book Day by one day to facilitate the participation of schools because we believe that it is important that children and adolescents become aware from a very young age of the importance of reading, a practice that, unfortunately, It seems that it is declining, ”explained Santos.
With some anticipation, happy #Day of the book Y #WorldSpanishLanguageDay! This year we celebrate it with the reading of Don Quixote and Doña Bárbara, along with @AVeLenguaand with the support of @Chacao. You can watch the full opening video: https://t.co/itbHzjvmzt pic.twitter.com/gquUAygmVt
– EmbEspVenezuela (@EmbEspVenezuela) April 22, 2022
The activity, organized by the Embassy of Spain, in collaboration with the Venezuelan Academy of Language and the Mayor’s Office of Chacao (Caracas), consisted of the traditional uninterrupted reading of Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, in which more than 200 participated. people, from 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT), until 17:00 local time (21:00 GMT).
In addition, in homage to local literature, the reading of the novel Doña Bárbara, a “classic” by the writer Rómulo Gallegos (1884-1969), was included.
Santos recalled that it is an “eminently cultural celebration whose purpose is to encourage reading, promote the publishing industry,” since “without the publishing industry there are no books and without books there is no reading.”
Members of the diplomatic corps from several accredited countries in the Caribbean nation, local authorities and the president of the Venezuelan Academy of Language, Horacio Biord Castillo, attended the celebration of International Book Day in Caracas.
